Forum tells insurance firm to pay Rs 5L to advocate’s wife

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 24

The District Consumer Redressal Forum directed United India Insurance Company Limited, Mani Majra, to pay Rs 5 lakh insurance claim to the wife of an advocate who died in a road accident.

Victim Deepak Bhatnagar was enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh. He had purchased a Group Personal Accident Policy from the Mani Majra-based insurance company. Kamini Bhatnagar, wife of Deepak Bhatnagar, was a complainant in this case. 

On February 15, 2017, the victim was riding pillion on a motorcycle being driven by Krishan Saluja. They met with an accident while saving a dog. Both Bhatnagar and Saluja fell on the road and as a result, the former received serious head injuries and was declared brought dead at a hospital in Shahabad.

The insurance company repudiated the claim on the grounds that the post-mortem of the deceased was not done and intimation was not given as per the time limit fixed under the terms and conditions of the insurance policy.

However, the complainant had submitted a copy of the DDR lodged with the police post at Shahabad and the report of a doctor, who had medically examined the victim.

The forum gave due credence to the documents submitted by the complainant, which proves that the complainant’s husband died in a road accident. “It was simply a technical objection just to deprive the complainant, widow of late Deepak Bhatnagar, of her lawful claim as the life of her husband was insured for a sum of Rs 5 lakh,” said the forum.

On the objections raised by the insurance firm on the timely intimation of the death, the forum held that the complainant was not aware of the said insurance policy and she was under shock.

The forum said, “When she secured her balance of mind after coming out of depression of her husband’s death and getting wind of the insurance policy, she had intimated the insurance company to process her claim.”

The forum directed the firm to pay Rs 5 lakh, along with Rs 25,000 as compensation for mental agony and Rs 10,000 as litigation cost, to the complainant.